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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  1764 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Women Own Half the Farmland in America. They Don't Earn Half the Profits.

This seems like a market issue

    The reality is, of course, more complicated. For example, women tend to own smaller farms that typically make less money. Many female farmers and landowners are trying out new approaches to agriculture—making "value-added products" like jams and cheeses, renting to conservation-minded tenants—that aren't always valued in the U.S. food system. Still, things are improving: U.S. Department of Agriculture census data shows women's sales have increased across every class of farm over the last three decades.

This is obviously something more and an issue that I'm glad to see is being addressed.

    It's not just a size issue, however. For decades, institutional barriers have kept women out of agribusiness. In 2008, the USDA was ordered to pay out $1.33 billion to Latinx and female farmers who were denied loans because of their gender and race. This problem still plagues the department: On average, women received less money through federal farm programs, but slightly more than men in conservation and Commodity Credit Corporation loans in 2017.

The rest of the article discusses the hardships of being a women in a male dominated field and the sexism you might expect of people out in the country. That sounds hard and terrible but I'm not sure how much it impacts the economics of farming the article starts out discussing.





user-inactivated  ·  1764 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If I had to guess, they're probably trying to illustrate just a generally unwelcoming atmosphere that potentially stifles full participation of women.